Personal electronic devices have become staple items of everyday life. They provide a wide spectrum of functionalities of which users take advantage. Coupled with connectivity, such as the ability to access a public network (e.g., Internet), a wireless network, or the like, the personal electronic devices have become essential to communications between the users.
With the ever increasing availability and bandwidth of connectivity, the personal electronic devices allow the users to be connected at almost all times. From basic voice functionality using, e.g., a cell phone, to more advanced data functionality using, e.g., a smartphone or a tablet, the users can communicate with each other, conduct e-commerce and m-commerce, surf the Internet, stream content, or the like on a 24/7 basis.
This connectivity, however, comes with a cost. Service providers typically charge users for using their networks based on, for example, the airtime (e.g., voice minutes) or the size of the data (e.g., megabytes or gigabytes of data) that is used. Various charging models are available and include pre-paid and post-paid models. In the pre-paid model, a user pre-pays for an amount of voice/data that he or she can use over the network of a service provider before actually using the voice/data functionalities. In comparison, in the post-paid model, the service provider charges the user for the amount of voice/data that he or she actually used in a certain billing cycle.
The various charging models may limit the functionalities of the personal electronic devices when connected to the network of the service provider. For example, in the pre-paid model, once the amount of voice/data is used, the user may no longer be able to use his or her personal electronic device for additional voice/data functionalities that require use of the network. Similarly, in the post-paid model, the service provider and/or the user may impose a cap on the amount of voice/data that can be used in the billing cycle. Once the cap is reached, the corresponding functionalities of the personal electronic device may be disabled. Further, in other situations, the user may have signed up for only a subset of available functionalities (e.g., voice services). In this situation, the user may not be able to use the personal electronic device to perform functions for which he or she was not signed up (e.g., exchange data over the network).